Assassins (1995 film)

Assassins
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Donner
Screenplay by	Brian Helgeland Andy Wachowski Lana Wachowski
Story by	Lana Wachowski Andy Wachowski
Produced by	Joel Silver Bruce A. Evans Raynold Gideon Andrew Lazar Jim Van Wyck Richard Donner
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Antonio Banderas Julianne Moore
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Edited by	Lawrence Jordan Richard Marks
Music by	Mark Mancina
Production companies	Silver Pictures Canal+
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	October 6, 1995 (1995-10-06) (United States) November 1, 1995 (1995-11-01) (France)
Running time	132 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$83.5 million

Assassins is a 1995 American action film directed and produced by Richard Donner, written by Andy and Lana Wachowski and rewritten by Brian Helgeland. The film stars Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore. The Wachowskis stated that their script was "totally rewritten" by Helgeland, and that they tried to remove their names from the film but failed.

Plot

Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone) is a paid assassin who wants nothing more than to get out of 'the business', haunted by the memory of murdering his own mentor Nicolai years ago. Rath is a quiet, morose professional who is on an assignment to kill someone when someone else gets to the 'mark' (the target) before he does. That person turns out to be Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas), a fellow assassin and a competitive sociopath. Rath then has the trouble of trying to figure out who sent Bain, the contractor offers him one last job that could financially allow him to retire: killing the four Dutch buyers and the computer hacker named Electra (Julianne Moore) and retrieve a disk that contains sensitive information. Electra has set up cameras in all the rooms of the apartment block where she lives and watches them like watching television.

Bain is assigned to kill Electra as well. Bain kills the four Dutch buyers who turn out to be Interpol agents and Rath comes to kill Electra but for the first time has a change of heart. His pay for the job is given to him in a briefcase in exchange for the disk. The briefcase actually contains a bomb placed by his own contractor in an attempt to kill him. Luckily Electra had swapped the disk, not sure if Rath was coming back or not. The contractor takes the chance and hires Bain to terminate him; now having become a target along with Electra he must try and extract enough money out of his contractor so he can disappear for good, while avoiding the bloodthirsty Bain. Rath's contractor turns out to be none other than Nicolai himself who also hired Bain to track down Electra and the disk.

Cast

• Sylvester Stallone as Robert Rath
• Antonio Banderas as Miguel Bain
• Julianne Moore as Electra
• Anatoly Davydov as Nicolai Tashlinkov
• Muse Watson as Ketcham
• Steve Kahan as Alan Branch
• Kai Wulff as Remy
• Mark Coates as Jereme Kyle
• Kelly Rowan as Jennifer
• Reed Diamond as Bob

Production

The original spec screenplay was written by Lana and Andy Wachowski and sold for $1 million to producer Joel Silver around the same time he bought their script for The Matrix, also for $1 million. The script was similar to the final product, but with a more developed love story between Rath and Electra and a briefer ending without the character of Nicolai. Joel Silver offered Richard Donner $10 million to direct, but Donner insisted the script be rewritten to tone down the violence and make the central character more sympathetic and brought in Brian Helgeland, who did a page one rewrite and earned a co-screenwriter credit. The Wachowskis attempted to remove their name from the film but were refused by the Writers Guild of America.

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative press, and currently holds a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The script was heavily criticized for being confusing and dull. However, the actors' performances were praised. Stallone's performance in the film earned him a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor (also for Judge Dredd), but lost the trophy to Pauly Shore for Jury Duty.

Box office

Assassins debuted at No. 2 at the box office. The film grossed $30.3 million in the US and another $53.2 million worldwide, for a total of $83.5 million.

External links

• Assassins at IMDb
• Assassins at Box Office Mojo
• Original screenplay by Andy and Lana Wachowski
• Screenplay revised by Brian Helgeland